Beasthunter

by Katharina Gerlach

  Tom screamed and rushed at it. “Sally!”

  The Beast roared and took a step toward Tom, two red eyes glowing in the fog. At that moment, Snoop came out of it bottom first, and Tom stopped. Snoop was dragging something—no, someone. It was Mr. Jake.

  The Beast roared again, and Snoop had to dig his hind legs into the soil to stop Mr. Jake from being sucked back in.

  “Tom,” Mr. Jake called. “It's love! Not hate, not anger. Love.” He made shooing motions with his hands. “Run, save yourself.”

  Tom's eyes filled with tears as Mr. Jake was pulled back into the Beast, dragging Snoop along.

  “I can't do it alone!” Tom stood frozen to the spot, a few steps outside the ward. The Beast turned and walked toward him.

  “Snoop, save Tom.” Mr. Jake's command rang louder than the Beast's roar. Snoop let him go and jumped the monster from the side, just as it pounced on Tom.

  “Love conquers all.” Mr. Jake vanished in the Beast's fog.

  Tom nearly didn't hear his final comment. A tendril of mist wound itself around his foot. He felt the dizziness he had experienced once before, when the Beast had tried to steal his memories. Snoop's strong jaws sliced through the fog and Tom stumbled backwards. He landed on his bottom with a thud.

  “Hurry.” Snoop's voice was low and overlapping with barks. “Through the gate. I can't keep it at bay much longer.”

  Tom scrambled to his feet and hurried through the gate, and a moment later Snoop came flying through the air. He slammed into the ground and lay motionless.

  “Snoop!” Tom ran to him, and the Beast jumped him with a roar. It howled in pain as it pushed through the gate. The protective spell lit up and sparkled. It slowed the Beast but didn't stop it.

  Tom's hands were wet with sweat. Everything had gone wrong. Sally was gone, and so were Mr. Jake and his ghosts. And Snoop was hurt. He could see blood pool under the dog's head. Tom no longer cared one bit if the Beast got him too. He had lost everything he loved. Gently, he picked up Snoop and carried him into the house. The Beast followed in slow motion, fighting Mr. Jake's weakening spell every inch of the way.

  Tom slammed the door with his foot. He didn't want to see it coming.

  He laid Snoop on the soft carpet and knelt beside him. Snoop opened his eyes and sat up. Blood and spittle soaked his muzzle. He shook his head and winced.

  “Whoa, that was a hard landing,” he said. “And it seems I bit my lip.”

  Tom flung his arms around Snoop's neck. “You're alive.”

  Snoop pricked his ears. “And so is the Beast. You need to put up a new ward. Hurry up.”

  Tom sprang to his feet and fetched Mr. Jake's spellbook—the one he could read. He flipped though the pages until he found a warding spell. Snoop helped him to get the ingredients together.

  “Hurry up. It's only got three yards to the front door,” he said.

  Tom grabbed a handful of Mr. Jake's freshly ground coffee and ripped the door open. He blew the coffee directly into the Beast's face. It had just put a paw on the first step to the door. The coffee whirled around its face and it blinked, and Tom felt cold all over. But there was no time to lose. The coffee powder hovered above the Beast, gently descending all around it.

  “Amore ardens,” Tom said. “Be safe and secure in my love.”

  A green flash went through the coffee, and a dome of green light formed around the Beast. When it tried to jump him, Tom instinctively stepped backwards and slammed into the doorframe. The Beast flinched when it touched the ward, and Tom's legs gave. Unable to stop himself, he slid to the ground.

  “Not bad for a first try.” Snoop sat beside him with a lopsided grin. “And an unusual approach too. No one's ever put a ward around the Beast before.”

  Tom tried to speak but his heart hammered so loud, he couldn't hear his own voice. Only when he realized that the Beast wasn't coming any nearer did he calm down. “Won't it pull back into its hiding place and return to some other place in reality?”

  “It can't. Your spell anchored this bubble, and it can't be in two places at once.” Snoop cocked his head. “It's a splendid idea to ground it in our reality. As long as it holds on to the statues, it can't come out.”

  “I wanted to make sure that it couldn't take Sally anywhere,” Tom said.

  Together, he and Snoop watched the Beast in its glowing cage. It turned to fog, to no avail. It became a rabbit-like monster and tried to dig into the earth, but that didn't help either.

  “Do you miss Jake too?” Snoop's usually perky ears hung. “He would have liked this.”

  Tom nodded. “And I miss Sally.”

  Silently they watched a few more unsuccessful attempts of the Beast to flee the ward. Finally it gave up, sat on its haunches, and glared at Tom with its beady red eyes. He shuddered. Then it dawned on him. He had achieved something Mr. Jake hadn't even thought of.

  “I caught it.” He looked at Snoop, hardly able to believe it. “I really caught it.”

  Snoop's grin widened. “It seems you'll be a better master than I had thought.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Tom: Here and Now

  When Tom's legs decided to support him again, he got up and stepped inside.

  “What are we going to do now?” He looked down at Snoop. “We can't leave it there.”

  “I'd try to get Mr. Jake back, but you're the master. You decide.” The dog shrugged, which looked weird because the movement rippled through the entire body until even the tip of the tail twitched.

  Tom closed the door so he didn't have to look at the Beast again. He sighed. “If it weren't for Sally, I could forget the whole thing and go back home.”

  “That doesn't bring Jake back, or any of the others.” Snoop cocked his head. “You probably don't want to hear that, but you're the only hope they've got.”

  Tom knew he was right. He just wasn't sure if he would be strong enough. Why hadn't Mr. Jake chosen someone else? He knew the answer. It hadn't been Mr. Jake who'd chosen him, it had been the Beast. His thoughts turned to Sally. How long would he remember her? What if he got her back one day but had become so old, she didn't recognize him anymore? There had to be a way to get her out before he became old. Tom's stomach growled.

  Snoop curled up with laughter. “What a Beast Hunter—fights the Beast on an empty stomach.”

  Tom ignored him. He made himself a peanut butter sandwich and searched the kitchen for an apple and something to drink. All the while, he racked his brain for a solution to his problem, to no avail. He did not know enough. He turned to Snoop.

  “First, I need to know exactly what the Beast is. We can't fight it when I know so little.”

  Snoop sat on his haunches. “It's rather similar to me. We both found a place neither here nor there, an in-between place, where we can keep our core safe.”

  “I understood that. But how come I can see you and the Beast as you are but others don't? And how did it get here?”

  “A long time ago, someone used an old ritual to call it. It uses the imagination of its victims to create believable masks, and somehow you've got the talent to see through that disguise.”

  Tom filled a glass with milk. “You mean the Beast is a shape-shifter?”

  “Not really.” Snoop shrugged, which sent another weird ripple through his body. “It's hard to explain.”

  Tom looked out the window where the Beast still sat. If it stayed where it was, surely people were bound to notice sooner or later. Or was it invisible? He asked Snoop and bit into his bread.

  “Nay, but it looks uninteresting to most people.” Snoop eyed his bowl. “Do I get something too?”

  Tom poured him some dog food pellets and water. So, people would wonder even if they couldn't see the Beast's real form. He couldn't free it either. If he did, it would either attack him or disappear and suck up more kids. He couldn't yet fight it, and he surely didn't fancy chasing it around the world like Mr. Jake had done. If only Mr. Jake were here. Tom froze mid-motion, bread hoveri
ng before his open mouth. If he couldn't get Mr. Jake back to his world, would it be possible to follow him?

  “When the Beast sucked up all the people, where did they go?” he asked.

  “They are in its in-between place, so it can slowly drain their energy and use their imagination.” Snoop had already dug into his food and spoke with his mouth full.

  “You mean—they're inside the Beast?”

  “It's really hard to explain.” Snoop cocked his head and closed his eyes. “Picture a balloon that has been squeezed through a hole into a box and then blown up. The box is your world, the inside of the balloon is the in-between place, and everything around is, well, everything else. The Beast can push the balloon's surface into as many shapes as its victims can imagine. It can't go back to its home as long as there are still victims in his balloon because it won't fit through the hole.”

  “So everybody it caught is inside this balloon.”

  Snoop nodded. “At least for as long as it hasn't used up all their energy. But since creatures like us don't need much; it could be centuries before it depletes a single person. An unobtrusive link to the initial victim should have been more than enough.”

  Tom wondered what victim Snoop was linked to.

  Snoop cringed at the question and took his time to answer. “If you have to know, a mongrel dog. But it's still very much alive.” He sat back on his haunches. “Now, do you have an idea what to do?”

  “Mr. Jake said to fight it with love.” Tom pushed the last bits of his peanut butter sandwich into his mouth and spoke around the crumbs. “It's worth a try. All the hitting and hurting hasn't done much good. We'll try something different.”

  “What do you mean?” Snoop licked his lips. “What's your plan?”

  “I will use love to go after Sally and Mr. Jake.” Tom looked at the dog. “What will happen if the Beast defeats me? Who will be Beast Hunter after me?”

  “When the last Beast Hunter is defeated, I will have to fight the Beast alone until I can take it back to where it came from—our home.” Snoop hung his head.

  “If I get caught like Mr. Jake, could you get me back out?”

  Snoop cocked his head and gazed at Tom for a long time before he answered. “You're only half his weight, and much more innocent too. The Beast will probably not be able to put quite as many hooks into you.” He stretched. “I wouldn't want to wager on it, but I'd say there's a sixty percent chance I can get you back.”

  Tom swallowed. Suddenly his idea seemed crazy. He wiped his hands on his thighs. He would never be able to win where Mr. Jake had failed. He was nuts to believe he could. He was only a boy—a boy who'd lost his sister—a boy without Sally. What would be worse? Living without Sally, knowing that he hadn't used the tiny chance to save her, or facing the Beast?

  “Sixty is better than fifty-fifty, right?” His voice trembled.

  “Considerably better.” Snoop stood up. “Do you want to go right away?”

  Tom nodded. His throat was too dry to speak. Side by side, they left the house.

  The Beast sat where they had left it, but the dome was no longer as visible as before. Tom worried that his ward had already failed, but he realized that if it had, the Beast wouldn't be there anymore. Tom's heart thumped hard as they approached it. The Beast's eyes followed their progress, but it didn't move a muscle. At the ward, they stopped. No breeze stirred the leaves, and no bird sang. It was too quiet, and Tom's hair stood up. Was he doing the right thing? What if he was throwing away the last option Sally and Mr. Jake had? He mustered all his courage and extended his hand toward the Beast.

  “Good boy,” he murmured in as soothing a voice as he could muster. “You're a fine little beastie.”

  The Beast cringed from his fingers.

  Tom stepped forward through the ward. Instead of attacking, the Beast tried to flee, but couldn't. Tom touched it, and it flinched. Instead of punching, ripping, or hitting, he stroked the rough hide and hummed softly. The Beast shivered. Under Tom's gentle fingers, the pustules healed instantly, and the grimy, stiff bristles smoothed out. The Beast screamed and reared, but it was in a tight spot. It couldn't evade Tom's hands much, although it tried. He followed it and hummed and stroked. On the patches his hands had smoothed, he even planted a kiss or two. The Beast howled and twisted until its scream suddenly stopped. It lay still on the ground. Was it dead? Tom hadn't meant to kill it. Feeling sorry for it, he sat beside it and stroked its flank and belly.

  The belly convulsed and a piece of the hide stuck to Tom's hand. Only a thin thread still connected it to the rest of the Beast. He stared at the black hole in the Beast's belly. As expected, he could see nothing that would have been there in a normal animal; no blood, no internal organs. Also, there was no fog, no Mr. Jake, and no ghost he could see. He peeled the hide from his fingers and tried to rip the thread, but couldn't. As thin as it was, it didn't break, it only got longer. With a shrug, Tom stuffed the piece of hide into his pants' pocket. Again he looked at the hole in the Beast's side. He knew exactly what he had to do but his body refused to move. He looked back to Snoop.

  “If you're not back in ten minutes, I'll follow you and get you back out.” Snoop nodded encouragingly.

  Finally, Tom's body decided to cooperate. With shaking fingers, he pried the hole a little bigger with his free hand and crawled into the Beast's in-between place.

  It was pitch black inside, and it felt much bigger than the inside of an animal, even a magical one, had any right to be. The Beast's hide in his hand began to light up with a dull red glow. He got up. It shed just enough light to see around him for a yard in any direction. Tom noticed that the hole he had come through was closing. If Snoop doesn't come, I'll be stuck. He frowned and told himself, “Don't think about it.”

  Forcing down his fear, he focused on Sally. He could find a way out as soon as he had her back.

  Slowly, he walked through the darkness toward a looming shadow. It was the statue of a boy flying a kite. Tom touched the stone, and warmth pulsated under his fingers. The statue seemed to be alive. He walked on and discovered many more statues in the darkness, from babies and toddlers to half-grown boys and girls like him.

  “Sally?” His voice didn't carry. The darkness swallowed it. He walked from statue to statue and didn't know for how long. Suddenly a sound reached his ear. Someone was sobbing.

  “Sally?” He turned toward the sound and walked faster.

  But it wasn't Sally. It was a little boy, maybe six years old, with an open wound in his chest, a black hollow like the hole in the Beast's hide. He sat beside another statue and cried. His little face was swollen, and he looked at Tom with reddened eyes.

  “Who are you?” he asked. “No one comes here. Ever.”

  “I'm looking for my sister.”

  “There is nothing here but the living statues, the prisoners, and the Beast.” The boy blinked away his tears. “It fell asleep a little while ago. You need to be real quiet, or it will wake up.”

  “Would that be so bad?”

  “It hurts when it sucks my life. I'm linked to it, see?” The boy pointed to his chest, and Tom's eyes widened. A thin cord went from the boy's chest into the darkness. It was reddish at first but turned darker the farther he looked.

  “I'm linked to the living statues too,” the boy said and pointed to slender tendrils that went from his wound to the statues. “That way, the Beast will live longer.”

  “This is so, so…” Tom felt bile rising in his throat. The poor boy. He must have been stuck in this weird connection with the Beast for much longer than anyone else. Could he be the first ever victim? Maybe he was the key to the Beast's destruction. Tom needed to know more.

  “How did you get connected to it?”

  “My aunt did it. She's a witch, you know. She bound my best friend and me and cut my chest, but I didn't die.” The boy frowned in concentration. “When the daemon appeared, it took the form of a twisted woman. My aunt asked for something but I can't remember what.
I screamed and then I was in the darkness, and my best friend was a living statue.” He pointed to the sculpture beside him. “I've been here a long, long time, and no one ever came. Can you stay with me?”

  The longing in his face was so strong that Tom's heart contracted. He had come to get his sister back, not to rescue a mortally wounded boy. What could he say to him? He swallowed.

  “The Beast will notice,” he said, “and I wouldn't get my sister back.”

  “Maybe she's a statue too. I can help you look.” The boy stood up and put his hand in Tom's.

  Tom sighed. “Okay, let's have a look.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Tom: Here and Now

  Tom and the boy walked into the darkness hand in hand, although it wasn't really like walking. They moved their feet, but Tom didn't feel anything below the soles of his shoes. Walking on air could feel the same. Monkey-like, the boy clung to Tom's hand, pointing out statues, but Tom knew none of them.

  “What's your name?” Tom asked him. “I can't call you boy all the time, can I?”

  “No, silly, my name is Adalbert.” The boy giggled, and suddenly Tom felt glad he had made him laugh.

  “Well then, Adalbert, we are looking for a girl statue that has long plaits and wears trousers. Her face is covered in freckles.”

  Adalbert brightened. “She's the newest one. Those are always closest to the lair.”

  “That's where the Beast is?”

  “And the prisoners.” Adalbert's voice dropped to a whisper. “Do we have to go there?”

  “You don't need to be afraid. I'll be with you.” Hearing his own words, Tom felt strange. Before, it had always been Sally comforting him. Was he really brave enough to take care of a boy nearly half his age? Then he remembered that Adalbert was probably several centuries his senior. It's a really weird situation, he thought.

  “We need to be very quiet.” Adalbert's voice was hardly more than a sigh. He clutched Tom's hand tighter, changed direction, and walked on tiptoe. Tom followed his example. They seemed to be going somewhere since statues sped past and a reddish glow appeared in front of him, growing bigger with every step. When they came a little closer and his eyes had adjusted, he made out the sleeping form of a woman with twisted limbs. Her body glowed like molten lava and strong muscles moved in places where they shouldn't be. She lay curled up on the ground with her back to them and snored like a dog with a cold. Tom's skin broke out in goosebumps. The sleeping creature emanated an evil that pulled on his nerves and made the hairs on his arms rise. His palms sweated; he sucked his lips into his mouth. Never would he be able to defeat something so evil and powerful. Tom forced himself to look away. After all, he was here to find Sally.